I don't think it is possible to make a strong program by extracting
millions of patterns from professional games and sorting through them
automatically. Go is too tactical, and the branching factor is too high
to avoid heuristics in move sorting.
I always come back to that the pros seem to do it ("be a strong program")
when they play lightening go (*). Of course they are not using just
black/white stones, as they've assigned meaning to chains as the game has
progressed, but still I think search is an enhancement not the fundamental
strength of a strong player.